Media briefs and TV ratings

Eddie’s three year plan: By all accounts Eddie McGuire’s (AM) Melbourne BBQ at Bendigo Street
Richmond was a genteel affair. Staff came, they listened to Eddie and
wondered why John Alexander said nothing, even though as the CEO of
PBL, he is Eddie’s boss. And they were also mystified why the Network’s
Chief Operating Officer,
Ian Audsley, wasn’t more forthcoming about his tight-fisted
approach to spending. After all, speak to Nine staff and program makers
and you hear the common complaint that Audsley and Nine CFO, Brent
Cubis, are working hand in glove to control all spending, even in
editorial areas in News and Current Affairs. Air fares and payment to
freelance contributors need “third floor approval” in most cases.
Eddie’s words left Nine staffers with the very strong impression that
while Nine will try and be competitive in 2006 and 2007, Eddie sees
2008 as the year when Nine is back being a strong Number 1 again. A
three year plan that effectively writes off the next two years! Profits
before ratings! But people wonder if Eddie is really on top of things.
On Millionaire on Monday
night he told a female contestant (who is a fencer) that “now that I am in
charge of budgets around here… ” But
it’s most peoples’ understanding in and around Nine that
Eddie doesn’t have any budget control. Audsley and Cubis have control at the Network and Park Street oversees
it all. – Glenn Dyer

Magda joins Nine’s terminal list: The
Nine Network now has three new programs on its
hands that have comprehensively failed. Magda’s Funny Bits is hardly that and last night Australian viewers chopped it: only 696,000
people watched, down from the 856,000 who watched the opening episode last week. It
joins Clever and Bert’s Family Feud on the failure list, while Temptation has been battered by Ten’s The
Biggest Loser and the strength of Home and Away. Magda’s Funny Bits attempts
unsuccessfully to tap nostalgia with the old Janelle segment from Fast Forward. Magda herself is a bit dated and for a network responsible for a fine program like RPA, for example, to screen something like Magda (and
Clever and Bert) is mystifying. Seeing
it’s up against Seven’s ratings powerhouse in Dancing With the Stars, you get the impression that Nine has buried
it at 7.30pm Tuesdays because of embarrassment and nothing
else. Magda finished fourth in the 7.30pm-8.30pm timeslot behind Dancing With The Stars, The
Simpsons and Futurama on Ten
and The 7.30 Report on the ABC. – Glenn Dyer

Ten aims to revitalise Idol: The Ten
Network is planning some far reaching changes to the format of Australian Idol
to try and make it more interesting to its target
audience. Ten has
already revealed more auditions and a lift in the maximum age to 30 to try and
encourage a more mature type of performer and thereby expand interest in the 25
plus section of the demographic. Now the
spin-off program, Inside Idol has been killed off because it was a boring
underperformer that had no hope of capturing the success of Big Brother
Uncut. And Idol
will not start until Big Brother is finished, thus avoiding the
spluttering start last year when the programs overlapped. Viewers
in the 16 to 39 age group had to choose, and they chose BB. Idol‘s
average audience in 2005 was more than 30% down on 2004. There are several other significant changes to come, but
there are risks and the younger end of the demographic (16 to
22-23) might not necessarily watch older
performers. – Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV
ratings